Cavs Question

I may have missed this specific discussion, but I wanted to throw this out there. One of the reasons that LeBron moved on is the fact that Wade really amounted to a part tim player, averaging a little under 60 games a season over the last three..

When you look at Love and Irving, they have both also averaged right on 60 games a seasons. Did LeBron trade in one part timer for two? How sturdy do you think this trio will be given the injury history of two of the three?

I don't really buy into the injury hype that surrounds both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. Dwayne Wade has been struggling with knee injuries for some time now, and he is on the wrong side of being 30 years old. LeBron traded repetitive knee injuries for younger players that are entering the prime stages of their careers. Sure, they may miss a few games here and there with nagging injuries, but it (should) never reach the level of D-Wade, and LeBron knows this.

I think the difference is his new two are 25 or under and their injuries aren't from years of pounding. Wade while only playing 60 games, isn't going to be what he was once. Whereas these two have had some bad luck and should be able to play most games. Plus I don't think Lebron is gonna let guys sit with little bumps and bruises. And lastly, winning will be motivation to keep it going.

I may have made it sound like Love and Kyrie aren't tough but what I'm trying to say is no, he didn't trade one part time for two. He's got 2 young studs that should play most of the season and only haven't because they had some unlucky injuries. I don't think they're injury prone like Wade is because they don't have the wear and tear Wade does.

Love had missed games for two reasons. Love broke his hand (he claims doing knuckle pushups) three years ago. This cost him almost a full season. He missed a couple of months, then came back and tried to play with a pad on his hand, and rebroke it, at which point he was shut down for the rest of the year.

The other reason is that there have been at least two seasons where Minnesota has shut Love down with a half dozen games or so left. I don't know whether it was a tanking for draft position move, or whether it was to give minutes to players they wanted to look at, but it certainly seemed that Love could have played in those games if the games had mattered.

Injuries can always happen, but I think Love is healthier than most big men, and certainly isn't "injury prone". About the only thing that seems to keep Love out of a game from time to time is back spasms, but it really hasn't been an issue, just a game here and there.

Another thing to consider is where their teams were. Love and Irving were on two pretty bad teams with no real hope to make the playoffs. Once they got hurt there wasn't any reason to rush them back. Wade on the other hand just needs to rest and may never play over 70 games in a season again.

When I look at it, though, Irving has played a full, injury free season since HS. Love may have had some explainable injuries and only be 25, but those stack up and are often the reasons that older players start to run out of steam. Wade started by getting knicked a lot. Next thing you know, he is hobbled with a completely different game most nights. I am not saying these guys will never be healthy or productive over the 100 or so games they will need for a season and a playoff run, but there is not a lot of evidence they can do it.

Love and Irving have age on their side compared to Bosh and especially D-Wade. I don't think that this was the major reason LBJ returned to the Cavs, I figure he wanted a new challenge and to go to a 3rd team would have meant starting from scratch and really annoying the Miami fans. At least going back to the Cavs he's trying to make amends to their fans and it gives him a good reason to move on from Miami. He can say to the Heat fans, I gave you 4 Conference titles and 2 NBA titles so you didn't do badly out of me.

K-Love only had the one real injury that cost him a huge amount of a season when he broke his hand in 2012-13, he missed the start of his 2nd season with an injury to his other hand but apart from that has played the majority of games and has clearly been shut down on occasion by the T-Wolves. The Cavs have good depth on their bench at SF-C so K-Love and LBJ will not need to play excess minutes and when games are clearly won or lost they will be sat in the 4th quarter I guess.